You wish it weren’t true, but “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is just another standard biopic consisting of historical re-enactments set to a soaring, emotional score. For some, that will be enough. But when you’re talking Nelson Mandela, it woefully underserves a man who sacrificed 27 years of his life in prison before finally rising from the ashes to set his people free.

This is big stuff, but director Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) approaches it like he’s profiling an entertainer, much like “Ray” hit all the highlights of Ray Charles’ life without ever exposing what made the man tick. It’s doubtful you’ll learn anything about Mandela that you don’t already know: that he was a lawyer, a womanizer, a boxer and finally an activist before rising to be South Africa’s first black president.

Idris Elba (“The Wire”) accepts the unenviable task of bringing the recently deceased icon to life and does an OK job, but the accent never seems right. Nor does the gangly Elba resemble Mandela. Making his job even tougher is the disembodied presence of Morgan Freeman, who just four years ago created an indelible Mandela in the vastly superior “Invictus.” Where that film wisely covered one event in Mandela’s life, it fully captured the essence of the man and his mission. “Long Walk to Freedom,” based on Mandela’s 1992 memoir and adapted by William Nicholson (“Gladiator”), does none of that.

It rushes from scene to scene futilely trying to cram in more than two dozen key events from Mandela’s life. His failed first marriage, his union with second wife, Winnie (a superb Naomie Harris), the birth of his children, his non-violent protests, as well as the acts of terrorism that landed him in jail. The most intriguing moments occur when he’s behind bars, as he fights to survive and carry on his fight from a dank, secluded penitentiary on Robben Island.

There’s no denying the film contains a certain amount of uplift. How could it not? But it almost always seems manufactured, especially with Alex Heffes’ intrusive score consistently dictating how we’re supposed to feel. What legitimately gets to you is the handful of scenes of innocent, unarmed blacks being shot like cattle by South African troops, a practice both Britain and the U.S. indirectly condoned.

It’s for that reason that “Long Walk to Freedom” is a must-see for youngsters, who likely have no notion of the inhumanity that was inflicted upon people simply due to the color of their skin. Most importantly, they should know that these senseless acts of violence weren’t exclusive to South Africa – that they also shamefully occurred in the southern United States as well. Still, you can’t escape the sense that “Long Walk to Freedom” should have been a whole lot better than it is, because if anyone deserves a four-star bio, it’s Nelson Mandela.

Page 2 of 2 - MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM (PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence and disturbing images, sexual content and brief strong language.) Cast includes Idris Elba and Naomie Harris.